EFF has filed a Freedom of Information Act suit against the Department of Justice (DOJ), demanding the release of a secret legal memo used to justify FBI access to Americans' telephone records without any legal process or oversight. This suit stems from a report released last year by the DOJ's own Inspector General that revealed how the FBI had come up with a new legal argument to justify secret, unchecked access to private telephone records. According to the report, the DOJ's Office of the Legal Counsel had issued a legal opinion agreeing with the FBI's theory. EFF's lawsuit is seeking that legal opinion, which is a crucial piece of the puzzle in understanding the government's efforts to expand and overreach their surveillance powers.

EFF is standing up to support a powerful new piece of legislation in California - a bill that requires the police to obtain a warrant before searching a recent arrestee’s cell phone. SB 914 is a response to a January decision of the California Supreme Court in People v. Diaz. In that case, the court authorized police officers to search any person’s cell phone after they had been arrested. This gives officers carte blanche to rummage through all the private data and information people keep on their cell phones – emails, text messages, call history, websites they’ve visited, and their calendars, to name just a few examples –regardless of whether the police believed there was evidence of the crime on the cell phone and without any judicial oversight. SB 914 is a proactive attempt to protect our Fourth Amendment rights. If you're in California, we urge you to contact your state Senators and ask for their support for this bill.

The Kerry-McCain "Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights," recently introduced in Congress, is an attempt to create a general federal framework to protect consumer privacy both online and offline. Currently, federal privacy law is sector-specific, often applying only to certain types of information or certain categories of "covered entities," and thus leaving gaps in privacy protection. A good comprehensive federal privacy law could fill those gaps. Unfortunately, EFF's analysis of the Kerry-McCain bill indicates it could strip away many of the hard-won consumer privacy protections that states have enacted - reducing the consumer protections currently available in many places.

EFF Updates

Senator Patrick Leahy introduced much-needed legislation to update the Electronic Communication Privacy Act of 1986, a critically important but woefully outdated federal privacy law. This ECPA Amendments Act of 2011 (S. 1011) would implement several of the reform principles advocated by EFF as part of the Digital Due Process coalition. The upshot? If the government wants to track your cell phone or seize your email or read your private IMs or social network messages, the bill would require that it first go to court and get a search warrant based on probable cause.

Patent troll Lodsys is threatening independent Apple application developers with enormous fees. These threats are particularly ludicrous because the developers are only using the programs that Apple has licensed and requires them to use. Unless Apple steps in to defend its developers against these bogus lawsuits, developers might suffer - and users might see fewer innovative apps for Apple products.

Freedom House, an NGO working for freedom of expression worldwide, released a report last month examining the results of surveys on the use of circumvention software to bypass Internet censorship in Azerbaijan, Burma, China, and Iran. The report's blend of survey results and
lightweight lab testing resulted in interesting questions and unexpected limitations, which EFF seeks to highlight for the safety and consideration of users.

EFF is seeking a full-time Technology Generalist to start immediately. This person will work with the other members of the EFF tech team to manage web content on eff.org, perform server systems administration and desktop support, and generally to support the EFF tech, legal, and activist teams in their mission to defend civil liberties online.

Although this is a junior position, there is room to grow your skills, responsibilities, and compensation at EFF.
Required Skills:

Courteous and professional desk-side manner

Mac OS X troubleshooting and systems administration

Linux/Unix shell scripting and command line

Strong written and verbal communication

Nice To Have Skills:

A general-purpose programming language (Python, Ruby, PHP, et c.)

Web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript)

Portfolio of open source project contributions

Project management experience

Experience with the Drupal CMS

To apply, please send a cover letter and resume to techjob@eff.org. Please send materials only in open formats like plain text and HTML. No phone calls, please.

miniLinks

Check out the Demand Progress petition against the new Protect-IP Act, an Internet censorship bill that would give the Department of Justice authority to force search engines, browsers, and service providers to block users' access to websites.

Salon.com's Glenn Greenwald discusses EFF's latest case against the Department of Justice as well as the the backroom deal resulting in a vote for a four-year extension of the PATRIOT Act with no reform.

Reproduction of this publication in electronic media is encouraged. Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of EFF. To reproduce signed articles individually, please contact the authors for their express permission.

Press releases and EFF announcements & articles may be reproduced individually at will.

Announcements

EFF's new Director of International Freedom of Expression, Jillian York, participates on the Society panel this year's Mesh Conference in Tonornto. She will discuss digital activism and its particular use in the Middle East and Africa as a tool against tyranny.
Location: Toronto, CA
Date: May 25-26, 2011

EFF's Director for International Freedom of Expression, Jillian York will speak on the Arab Spring, with particular focus on free expression at this year's ADC National Convention.
Location: Washington, DC
Date: June 10-12, 2011

EFF is a proud partner of SOURCE Security Conferences this year in Seattle. As an EFF supporter, you can receive a 10% discount on registration. Just use the code "SRCEFF11" on the form. (As of time of posting, the schedule has not been announced.) EFF Senior Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann is speaking on "The Latest Developments in Computer Crime Law" at Source Seattle this year.
Location: Seattle, WA
Date: June 15-16, 2011